Improvement in knitting-machines



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ANTHONY' e. DA'vIs AND CHARLES wnLAnnsLnn, or vvArEnfrovvN, AND ALPHES N. ALLEN, on WEsTv-ILLnAssmNoRs To THE CHAPIN KNiT'riNc-MACHINE CoM- PANY, 0F NEW HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT. i

l. Lette/rs Patent No. `101,106, dated March 22, 1870. l

A IMPROVEMENT IN KNITTING-MACHINES.

'llhelschedule referred' to in these Letters Patent and makngpart ofthename.

To all `whom 'it may concern: l

Be it known that we, ANTHONY G. DAvis and lGHAnLEsW. BLAKEsLEa'both of Watertown, Litch- 'field county, Connecticut, and A LPHnUsN. ALLEN,

of .Westville, New Haven county, in the same State, have invented certain Improvements in Knitting-Machines; and we do hereby declare that the. following,l taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a descrip tion of our inventionsuflcientto enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

. In vthe United States'patena-No, 79,897, granted to Blakeslee, Beecher, and Davis, July 14, 1868, there was employed a` detachable automatic traveler, which was operated by a projection on the needleactuating cam-plate, this movement ofthe traveler along a toothed rack reducing the number of needlesl .brought into action, and gradually lessening the range of traverse of the cam. In' that patent the needleactuating cam had a groove which wasA always open, and in its traverseiin either direction the needles necessarily were elevated in regular succession bythe rising inclination of the groove. As a consequence, and because there'was no provision by which the needles upon which the' cam was actingat the end of its traverse could be kept out of the incline, it became necessary at the en d of the traverse, and before reversing the movement of the cam, to carry the yarn byv hand or'by a hook over a number of needles, more or less; otherwise the work would be imperfect, and

leave a small hole or. gap atl the endof each shortenedcourse;A and it was also necessary to carry the yarn by hand around the pointl of the needle.

Our presen-t invention consists in anovel construction of traversing-cam to be used in combination with an automatic traveler, the cam being made with a self-closing gate for each groove, these gates,.'in their normal position, closing a horizon-tal groove which communicates with and connects the two inclined grooves, either gate being opened to admit intol the horizontal groove the 'butts of the. desired number of needles, and to prevent their being elevated when not wanted.

' I Figure 1 is a plan of our invention.

Figure 2 is a cross-section 1n the line t s of fig. l.

Figure 3 is a detailed view, showing the sliding gate.

A andB indicate the inclined grooves of the traversing cams; and C, the horizontal one. v

D represents a gate-lifter, to be "secured to and to project from the automatic traveler, sothat it Vmay engage with the cam and come inV contact with a self'- closing sliding gate, E.

4The portion ofthis lifterfis made of suchthickness as to adapt it for readilyentering the groove 'b made for it iu the cam-plate c.

Thegates E are so constructed that, in their movements up and down, in the, act of opening or closing the horizontal passage C, they shall be steadied against any danger of lateral displacement, and for this pur-` pose we have shown them made with a groove, d, to receive a rib on the under side of plate j'.

A coiled spring, g, lyingin a cavity into which it'is compressed, rests against a shoulder 'on the gataand thus exerts a constant pressure to force it downward, tokeep the lower passage closed unt-il opened at the proper period bythe pressure caused bythe striking of the lower and outer sideof the gate' against the end of the lifter. -l

' When the gate. is thus' lifted, the further move-- ment ofthe cam in the same direction in whicli-ithas been moving, compels the remaining needles which shall come under the action of the camto enter 'the horizontal groove, inasmuch as `they cannot ride up the inclinedgroove, as thegate no longer is in position to guide them upward. The effect of lifting the" gate is, therefore, to break the. regular line of march,

and allow the butts .ofth'ose needles which have entered the inclines to pursue their 'accustomedroute until the cam hasv reached the end of its traverse,

while the butts of those needles in the rear of the break tile in succession 'into the straight groove.

The traveler, when struck, will, as described in the and each side of the Amachine is adapted for a trav-` eler.

It will now 'be seen that, with theA present invention,

there are never anyv useless, non-acting needles elevatedso as tobe in the way of the' one upon whichA the last stitch of the course was made; that nothing is needed to be done by'hand in the act of reversing;

. thatno needles need to be removed from their grooves for any purpose; and the yarn'held by the needle upon which the last stitch or loop. was formed is, upon the commencement ci' the "reverse movement, merely turned'partiallyaround upon ythat needle, without in the slightestaltcring its relation to the stitch already made, or to the one next to be made; and that no gaps or `holes are lett in the fabric, As a consequence, much time is saved and a better fabric pro- "duced, and there is n o need of stopping .at the end of 'a traverse before reversing. 1-

- 'It will also be observed .that by ourl construction of" cam the needles may be thrown out of action at any desired portion of or position in the line of needles,

and alsoithat this takes place while the process of knitting is going, ou; and, unlike that class of cams which have provision for closing the entire groovefso that the particularcam so closed becomes inoperative, our cam operates to throw needles ont of action on the 'same side' of the machine, and at the same time that itis doing its full duty in causing other needles to do their work.

We claim the combination with the traversing nee 'dle-moving cam of self-closing slides, operated during the traverseof the cam by a projection on a. traveler, 

